How to take an antibody test yourself: As Superdrug becomes first high-street retailer to sell self-sampling kits, we reveal HOW to make sure you get a result for £69 (and why it may help if you take a bath just before using it...)
- Antibody tests reveal whether someone has recovered from virus in the past
- Superdrug's service requires user to take their own blood sample
- Blood is then posted back to a lab and run through a government-approved test
- The service is now unavailable because of high demand, the website said
- Test maker Abbott said it was not meant to be used by people taking own blood
- Scientists say it is not clear whether a positive result indicates immunity or not
Antibody tests are now being sold privately - and Britons are lapping them up, eager to find out if they have already had the coronavirus.
Superdrug became the first high-street retailer to launch them yesterday morning and they were sold out by the afternoon.
But for £69 a go, you won't want to make a mistake.
The test needs blood to be drawn from the finger using a prick, collected in a tube and sent off to the laboratory in a pre-paid envelope.
Medical giant Abbott, which makes Superdrug's tests, has insisted that the kits were not intended for home use. It says a medical professional should collect the blood.
Superdrug's kit hasn't been validated by health chiefs, the test was only approved for blood samples taken directly from the veins by medics.
But it is legal because it kit has a CE mark. However, the retailer says buyers should interpret the results with caution because they haven't been approved.
Not only is the test less than 100 per accurate but the results may be skewed if the person doesn't carry it out correctly.
So how would you take the test properly to make sure you don't waste your money? Here, MailOnline gives you a step-by-step guide
Superdrug became the first high-street retailer to launch them yesterday morning and they were sold out by the afternoon. But for £69 a go, you won't want to make a mistake. The test needs blood to be drawn from the finger using a prick, collected in a tube and sent off to the laboratory in a pre-paid envelope
Superdrug has become the first high street retailer to sell a coronavirus antibody test to the public for £69 with almost 100 per cent accuracy
MAKE SURE YOUR HANDS AND FINGERS ARE CLEAN
Sampling your own blood at home first requires the hands to be clean. Superdrug's test contains alcohol wipes for that.
Also included is an alcotip swab to make sure the fingertip, where the blood will be drawn from, is completely clean.
USE THE LANCET TO DRAW BLOOD
Then you take the caps of the lancet sticks, which are tiny medical tools used for capillary blood sampling.
The lancet has a small needle inside. When you press the button in the side, the needle shoots out and makes a puncture in the skin to draw blood. This feels like a small pinch and doesn't hurt.
CATCH DROPS OF BLOOD IN THE TUBE
The next step is to massage the finger gently over the small test tube which collects the blood. It has to be filled to a certain line on the side.
Use a clean tissue to wipe the first drop of blood away and then hold your finger downwards and squeeze it towards the tip to help release more blood.
SCREW THE CAP ON THE TUBE AND PUT A PLASTER ON YOUR FINGER
Once you have screwed the cap on the tube, and put a plaster on the finger prick, you seal the tube into a pre-paid envelope to be sent to the lab.
There, it will be read by a technician using special equipment to see if the blood sample contains antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 - the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
It detects the IgG, which is the protein that develops after infection. If positive, it means that the person tested had the virus at some point. A notice on Superdrug's website yesterday afternoon said 'Due to the high demand of orders, this service is currently not available'
The test is produced by medical giant Abbott, who said it was never intended to be a home sampling kit, as sold by Superdrug
Anyone over the age of 18 can now privately buy the test, so long as they do not currently have symptoms of the virus because it takes at least 14 days for antibodies to be made.
Babylon is selling it for the same price, while another Northampton-based company – checkmybodyhealth.co.uk – is offering the Abbott test for £89. London-based privatecoronavirustests.com is selling it for £99.
It all seems so easy - so why do health chiefs advise against doing it?
Dr Alexander Edwards, an associate professor in biomedical technology, University of Reading, said: 'We don’t yet have a lot of published data comparing samples taken at home vs samples taken at a clinic for COVID-19.
'But prior work on other infections (e.g. home HIV testing) have shown that it is usually possible to get a test result from a sample taken at home.
'If there is a problem with the blood sample taken at home, it is possible the lab won’t be able to return a result. For example, if there isn’t enough blood, the lab won’t be able to process the sample.
'Using the lancets is not straightforward, and often it’s hard to get enough blood – some people really don’t like blood either!'
People with diabetes who need to check their blood sugar levels also use lancets to draw blood. But they are always shown how to do it by a doctor or pharmacist first.
Over time, they find the right pressure to apply the lancet on the finger. But with the COVID-19 antibody test, there are limited chances.
Abbott, who manufactured the test, said it was never intended to be a home sampling kit.
Abbott’s 'Architect' SARS-CoV-2 test, which has been branded by Superdrug, has been validated for use with a venous blood sample that is taken by a healthcare provider - not with a fingerprick by an individual.
When Abbott's test is used appropriately, it has 99.6% specificity and 100% sensitivity to detect IgG antibodies.
Public Health England, which evaluated the test using blood samples from 96 samples from COVID-19 patients and 759 healthy people, said it found similar results.
Superdrug said their test has 100 per cent specificity and 97.5 per cent sensitivity when tested at The Doctors Laboratory, a UKAS-accredited lab.
But it has not revealed how many blood samples were included to come to this conclusion, and if that was based on the blood being drawn by a medical expert or a lay person.
This is important because the accuracy of an antibody test is highly contested.
The test is 97.5 per cent sensitive, which means just over 97 people in 100 who test positive have indeed been infected.
The other three people, however, would get an inaccurate result - known as a false negative result. They will be told they do not have antibodies when in fact they do.
The test has 100 per cent specificity, which means it will never generate a 'false positive' result - when people are incorrectly led to believe they have antibodies.
However, commenting on the test, Stephen Evans, a professor of pharmacoepidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: 'This seems rather a strong claim since to be absolutely sure (“never”), an infinite number of people will have to have been tested.'
What's more, even if the test correctly tells someone if they have had COVID-19, scientists are still unsure whether antibodies mean a person is protected from catching the virus again.
Immunity to an infection can wear off sometimes in weeks, years, or very quickly. It is not clear at this early stage of a pandemic how long someone is protected.
Therefore, some say there is 'no point' paying for a test because it is still not clear what the results mean.
There are concerns the tests pick up antibodies that have been produced by the body to other, similar coronaviruses.
One study this week suggested some people already have antibodies that are unique to SARS-CoV-2 even if they have never been exposed.
They found the same antibodies in blood samples of COVID-19 patients and frozen blood samples of people from more than two years ago who had only ever had a common cold.
After the launch of the test yesterday, health chiefs accused Superdrug of 'playing on people’s fears'.
Yvonne Fovargue, the MP who chairs a parliamentary panel on consumer protection, raised issues with the price. She said: '£70 with postage for a test which is not completely accurate seems excessive.
'Superdrug seems to be playing on people’s fears and that’s not right. What people really need is a readily available, easy to use test that’s accurate. They deserve nothing less.'
A spokesman for Superdrug said: 'The price is reflective of the cost price that we pay for the testing.'
A top NHS official urged caution over the use of antibody tests, warning anyone who has bought one must still adhere to government rules on lockdown behaviours.
NHS medical director Professor Stephen Powis said at yesterday's Downing Street Briefing: 'I would caution against using any tests that might be made available without knowing quite how good those tests are.
'Public Health England as I say is evaluating them for the NHS so I would caution people against being tempted to have those tests.
'I wouldn't want people to think just because you test positive for the antibody that it necessarily means that you can do something different in terms of social distancing or the way you behave.
'Because until we are absolutely sure about the relationship between the positive antibody tests and immunity, I think we as scientists would say we need to tread cautiously.'
Other scientists, such as Lawrence Young, a virologist and molecular oncologist from University of Warwick, said they would not pay the 'expensive' £69 for a less-than perfect antibody test.
Professor Young said: 'They [Superdrug] highlight that a positive antibody test result does not confer immunity and shouldn’t impact current precautions such as social distancing. So why take the test in the first place? What value does it provide?'
But Dr Joshua Moon, a research fellow in sustainability research methods, University of Sussex, said: 'I’m not sure I’d use it to make personal decisions.
'That being said, I have the luxury of working from home so my ability to be cautious is fairly high. Whether or not you take this test as something to act on will depend on the individual more than the test’s reliability.'
Dr Simon Clarke, an associate professor in cellular microbiology, University of Reading, said: 'These tests are good for satisfying people’s curiosity, but no more. We just don’t know enough about what it takes to make someone immune to COVID-19 to accurately test people.'
Adam Finn, a professor of paediatrics, University of Bristol, who is also in the field of developing an antibody test for COVID-19, said until the science is clear, there is no point spending money on an antibody test.
'Until we know how strong and long lasting immunity is after infection, it is hard to know what to do about the results of these tests, even if the tests are reliable,' he said.
'So the bottom line is: don't spend money and time on any test unless you have a very clear idea of what the result does or does not mean for you and what you are going to do or not do if you get a positive or negative result.'
£69 DIY antibody tests go on sale: Superdrug becomes first high street retailer to sell a coronavirus test
Superdrug today became the first high street retailer to start selling a coronavirus antibody test to the public and sold out in a matter of hours.
The tests, which are intended to tell someone if they have had the virus in the past, cost £69 and require the user to take blood samples themselves and post them off to a laboratory, where it takes 24 hours to produce a result.
In a notice on the shop's website yesterday afternoon it said: 'Due to the high demand of orders, this service is currently not available'.
And the medical giant Abbott, which makes the tests, has insisted that its tests were not intended to be used by people taking their own blood samples.
Instead, the Illinois-based firm says its tests have only been evaluated to be accurate on blood samples taken by trained healthcare providers directly from patients' veins.
Any test that has a CE mark – such as the one made by Abbott – can be legally sold and used in the UK but health chiefs have repeatedly urged Britons to avoid tests that haven’t been approved.
Officials last week approved the Abbott test for laboratory use, making it only the second kit of its kind to be given the green-light following a similar kit made by Swiss giant Roche.
No home ‘pregnancy-test’ kits have yet been approved, despite promises in March that one would be available.
Known as the 'have you had it' tests, antibody tests reveal whether someone has been infected with COVID-19 in the past and recovered from it, but scientists are still unsure whether this means they are protected from catching the virus again.
Therefore, some say there is 'no point' paying for a test because it is still not clear what the results mean.
Superdrug urges individuals to continue social distancing and following government guidance even if their result is positive.
Superdrug started selling the kit yesterday morning on its Online Doctor service for £69, but said it isn't available in store.
It requires a few drops of blood collected by a finger prick taken at home which are sent off in a pre-paid envelope to The Doctors Laboratory. Blood is then placed into a vial, which must be filled until a certain level.
Michael Henry, Superdrug's healthcare director, said he is 'confident' the test is accurate and reliable.
Abbott's test was the second antibody test to be approved by the government's testing chiefs and is soon expected to be used by professionals in the NHS and in public surveys.
The first was that manufactured by Swiss firm Roche, called Elecsys, which is also not designed to give people a result in the comfort of their own home.
Both tests have been described as 'game changing' by PHE which conducted an analysis of it.
Ministers are in talks with Roche to buy millions of the tests, which will be given to NHS and social care workers for free. It is not clear if they will ever be given to the public.
Abbott's antibody kits are on standby for NHS use and a spokesperson said last week the firm had capacity to provide five million tests a month to the UK ‘with immediate effect’.
Superdrug says its test is 97.5 per cent sensitive, which means just over 97 people in 100 who test positive have indeed been infected.
The other three people, however, would get an inaccurate result - known as a false negative result. They will be told they do not have antibodies when in fact they do.
The test has 100 per cent specificity, which means it will never generate a 'false positive' result - when people are incorrectly led to believe they have antibodies.
Experts say is it better to compromise on sensitivity than specificity, because 'false negatives' can have dangerous consequences.
However, commenting on the test, Stephen Evans, a professor of pharmacoepidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: 'This seems rather a strong claim since to be absolutely sure (“never”), an infinite number of people will have to have been tested.'
Will Irving, a professor of Virology, University of Nottingham, said although it is reassuring claims test to be very accurate, it depends entirely on how the company came to that conclusion.
He said: 'The sensitivity data will be dependent on what kind of serum samples have been tested. If these are mostly – or all – from hospitalised patients, then the figure may be an overestimate, as there are data suggesting that individuals who don’t become very ill with COVID-19 may not make very high levels of antibody.
'The same is true of specificity.'
Superdrug doctor ambassador, Dr Zoe Williams, made clear the new test does not confirm someone is safe to go back to work or mingle in society.
She said: 'There are however things to consider before taking it.
'Receiving a positive antibody test result does not confer immunity, and it is important that people understand a positive test result does not mean you can be any more relaxed with the required hygiene and social distancing measures as set out by the government.'
Ministers are in talks with Roche to buy millions of the tests, which will be given to NHS and social care workers for free. The Roche test, called Elecsys (pictured), is also not designed to give people a result in the comfort of their own home.
Medical giant Abbott has produced a test which is essentially the same as the antibody test announced by the Government last week, manufactured by Swiss firm Roche.
Scientists welcomed the development in antibody testing. But rallied to remind the public that various antibody tests being sold privately online are a gamble, even if approved by officials.
Professor Gino Martini, Royal Pharmaceutical Society Chief Scientific Officer, said: 'Any antibody test at present can only provide a partial picture.
'The real issue is that no-one knows the level of immunity that is conferred by having antibodies to coronavirus, how long it might last, and if you can become re-infected.
'We need much more information and data on immunity before we can understand the importance of having antibodies to the virus.'
Adam Finn, a professor of paediatrics, University of Bristol, said: 'Even a true positive result, showing real antibody response to SARS-CoV-2, may not mean that a person is completely immune to the infection and at no risk of re-infection and of infecting others.
'We hope that immunity following previous infection will be fully protective in this way, but we are not yet sure.
'All of this complicated information is important.'
Professor Finn, who is also in the field of developing an antibody test for COVID-19, said until the science is clear, there is no point spending money on an antibody test.
'Until we know how strong and long lasting immunity is after infection, it is hard to know what to do about the results of these tests, even if the tests are reliable,' he said.
'So the bottom line is: don't spend money and time on any test unless you have a very clear idea of what the result does or does not mean for you and what you are going to do or not do if you get a positive or negative result.
'If the answer is that the result is not going to change what you do because you can't be sure what it means, then there's no point in doing the test.'
Babylon’s Dr Olivia Morrow – who is helping to lead the company’s coronavirus testing effort – says an antibody test 'can help give answers to people who are unsettled, wondering if that cough, fever, or loss of smell they had in February was COVID-19'.
Users can also choose to opt-in to share information to aid national research by institutions such as PHE, according to the company. It's not clear if this is the case for Superdrug.
PHE is conducting a surveillance programme to understand how many of the population have had the virus using their own, high accuracy antibody test operated at their Porton Down science campus.
Millions of Abbott's lab-based tests have been shipped to customers across the US after it was granted an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the FDA.
Abbott plans to ramp up to 20million antibody tests in June and beyond.
It's hoped that one day, CE-marked home testing kits, also called lateral flow tests, will become available.
But they have to be proven to work, first. Health chiefs are still on the hunt for an accurate immunoassay test since ministers promised one back in March.
The finger-prick test generates results in minutes at home. The results are displayed like a pregnancy stick and don't need the help of a laboratory of doctor.
Such a test was touted as the key to lifting lockdowns because it would mean people could buy a test quickly online, find out if they have had the virus and return to work or not.
But progress has been halted because scientists have warned it's still to early for them to know what the antibodies show, exactly.
There are hundreds of companies designing these tests, but so far, none tested by an Oxford University team have passed stringent protocol.
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